Blazing momentum: Purdue wrestling is heating up

The Boilermakers are hot off their best team finish at the NCAA Championships since 1992

Over the past dozen years, head coach Tony Ersland’s Purdue wrestling program has been climbing steadily. It’s been about the process and developing talents like Matt Ramos and Joey Blaze, who finished as national runners-up in their weight classes in 2023 and 2025, respectively.

Ersland’s Boilermaker team battles for respectability in arguably the most competitive conference in collegiate sports. Consider this: A Big Ten school has won 18 consecutive NCAA team titles, and in 12 of those 18 years, the league also had the runner-up.

That is dominance with no peers in the college sports realm.

For Purdue, this year was a breakout of sorts. Purdue finished 13th at the NCAA Championships, its best mark since George H.W. Bush was president. Blaze came within a whisker from winning the school’s first national title since 1992, and Ersland believes things are in place for continued improvement.

“If you want to compete for Big Ten or NCAA championships, you are going to have to be on the level of being capable of winning a world championship,” Ersland says. “It’s that competitive.

“We’re trying to teach standards and the best way of doing things so that we can operate at this high level. Having two like Matt and Joey in your room as examples of what high standards look like helps pull other guys along.”

For Ramos, who wrestles at 125 pounds, there have been some challenging lessons. As a redshirt sophomore, he pulled one of the biggest upsets in college wrestling history, pinning Iowa’s three-time national champ Spencer Lee en route to a runner-up finish. However, what Ramos experienced in the following two years helped him grow as a wrestler and mentor.

Ramos admits to losing focus in his junior year and not living up to the expectations he placed on himself, let alone what others had for him.

“I got caught up in a lot of what people think about me, and I’m the guy who beat Spencer Lee,” Ramos says. “I put a lot of stress on myself. I didn’t admit it then, but it helped me work to realize my potential to be the best I could be. It took me reflecting after last year’s national tournament as I was in a bad place afterward. My support system helped me.”

That support system included his teammates and coaches, as well as his daily process of reminding himself of his goals and why he loved the sport. Journaling helped, but so did a further deduction to his “brothers” on the team.

Blazing his own trail

Blaze’s story is similar to Ramos’ tale. He came in with grand expectations and showed promise as a freshman in 2023-24, but there were struggles.

“I wanted to be ‘the guy’ instantly, and I struggled as a freshman,” Blaze says. “I was too ambitious.”

And that struggle didn’t end in this year’s sophomore season. Blaze, a 157-pounder whose brother Marcus is the nation’s top incoming freshman and is committed to Penn State, battled knee and hamstring injuries midseason. This had the added effect of making weight maintenance extra challenging. But with the help of coaches and Ramos’ mature leadership, Blaze stuck to his process.

“You take those losses and you learn to take it on the chin,” Blaze says. “It’s about keeping that in perspective, that it is all a blessing. I know my friends, family and teammates love me, no matter if I win or lose.”

Blaze’s “intentional” process, a keyword used often by Ramos, Ersland and himself, pulled him through.

“I have to be intentional because I struggle with focus,” says Blaze, who battles ADHD and takes extra pride in being a two-time NWCA Scholar All-American as a selling and sales management major. “I have learned to be as intentional in class. I challenge myself to be the best I can be in the classroom, too.”

That ability to pay attention to detail paid dividends on college wrestling’s biggest stage. Blaze upset top-ranked Penn State wrestler Tyler Kasak in the NCAA quarterfinals in Philadelphia and in front of a partisan Nittany Lions fanbase. The victory paved the way for him to become the youngest Purdue wrestler since 1950 to reach the NCAA finals. While the 19-year-old Blaze’s upset wasn’t quite as shocking as Ramos’ 24 months earlier, it turned plenty of heads.

Lately, I’ve just been free as a bird and having fun. Grateful to be here and embrace every moment.

Joey Blaze on advancing to the ncaa final

“I had to be more creative with how I worked,” says Blaze, who, like Ramos, wakes up each morning and writes down his goals. “How I chose to work the back half of the year played a role in my success at the end of the year because I was mentally ready.”

Live on ESPN in front of a sold-out Wells Fargo Center crowd of 18,826, Blaze was edged out for the NCAA crown by Nebraska’s Antrell Taylor, someone Blaze had defeated a couple weeks earlier for third place in the Big Ten Championships.

The Purdue sophomore dictated the pace for most of the championship match, forcing multiple stalling warnings on his opponent, but Taylor held on for a 4-2 win after nabbing an early takedown.

As frustrating as the result was, the experience whets his appetite for more. Much more.

Call me “Coach Ramos”

If Blaze is going to climb the ladder one more rung in college wrestling, he will do it, in part, under the tutelage of Ramos. Ersland will add Ramos to his coaching staff for 2025-26 and beyond as the Lockport, Illinois, native is expected to be a physical and mental link to the Boilermakers.

Ramos, who spent a year at Minnesota before transferring to Purdue, will still be training in hopes of competing in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which can be accomplished while working with the team. The relationships Ramos has built with everyone associated with Purdue wrestling excites Ersland.

“I say this a lot about Matt, but his ability to purposely work on his relationships with his coaches and teammates separates him,” Ersland says. “That is what I love about him. That’s what Matt wanted in his coaching staff. And I think that’s why he’s had a good experience here. It’s because he values strong relationships with the people he’s involved with that he’s set up to be a great coach.”

Blaze agrees with Ersland but admits it will take time to get used to Ramos being on the other side of the ledger. When Blaze was a recruit, Ramos sold him on being part of something special at Purdue.

“He’s going to have a hard time yelling at us at first,” Blaze jokes. “Probably the first time he yells, it will be, ‘I guess we can’t mess with Matt anymore.’ We will have to do what he says.”

Looking ahead to the winning process

Ersland and men’s basketball coach Matt Painter were early adopters of using DISC assessment through Purdue Athletics’ “culture-building partner” Profile Behavior. It’s essential to what Ersland envisions his program to be.

“Matt and Joey are special because they understand that wrestling puts a premium on having the right people,” Ersland says, “The sport goes home with you every night. You must be disciplined in all areas, from weight management to all aspects of training. We have all the resources with terrific dietitians, strength coaches and trainers who all assist these young men, but that need for focus and discipline has a way of wearing on you. It is not easy.”

But Blaze, Ramos and Ersland enjoy the hard way. And they know the road to titles and championships will never be easy in the Big Ten. But there are hopes and dreams.

Ramos and Blaze share aspirations of someday making the U.S. Olympic team. Blaze, who has an affinity for retail clothing marketing in today’s NIL world, wants a national title and has two more years to do it. After his Purdue days, he wants to try professional mixed martial arts, like Ultimate Fighting Championship. Making the Olympics will require more, but the love of the sport and respect and admiration for each other can help carry them to new heights.

“Because of Joey and Matt’s success, people can have that kind of dream at Purdue,” Ersland says. “It elevates the room and shows elite talent the path to their dreams, which is never bad in recruiting.”

But it is the culture of love and gratitude that Ersland hopes will elevate his program to the next level.

“It’s the way of always having a positive perception of the discipline required,” Ersland says. “Matt has always had that, and that was really big for Joey this past season.”

From the looks of things, good days are in the future for Blaze, Ramos, and, ultimately, Ersland’s program as a whole.

Written by Alan Karpick, publisher of GoldandBlack.com